The ''official account'' blamed the Communist Party of Malaya for the killing. And as the two men were said to be CPM "hit men", the "logical" allegation was that the "hit" order came from Chin Peng. Was the official account right?
Mohsin Abdullah, fz.com
"UTUSAN ni dah jadi surat khabar Chin Peng" – read a text message sent to me by a friend a day after the CPM leader was cremated.
To this friend of mine, Umno-owned newspaper Utusan Malaysia's continuous onslaught against Chin Peng has only succeeded in giving "publicity" to the man branded a "terrorist" by some but hailed a "freedom fighter" by others.
I've received many such messages but this one's "special" because the friend who sent it has a son who is vying for a relatively high post in Umno in the coming party polls.
To him, Utusan should just "put a full stop" to all this as the anti-Chin Peng campaign has begun to work against Umno.
Messages received earlier as mentioned, also have the same view with a number of senders saying Umno leaders themselves should just "zipped up" as "the more they talked, the more ridiculous they sound". We know what has been said and what is still being said. No details needed.
In the words of Malaysiakini columnist Mariam Mokhtar: "Chin Peng is having the last laugh from beyond his grave". With that out of the way, ponder this:
The IGP assasination
On June 7, 1974, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Rahman Hashim was gunned down by two men in Lorong Raja Chulan Kuala Lumpur in broad daylight.
Moments later, his son, Najib, who was a crime reporter with the New Straits Times drove towards Court Hill (where the present Menara Maybank stand) when his NST reporter friend waved frantically at him to stop to inform that a high-ranking police officer had been assassinated further up the road. Upon checking Najib found, to his horror, the officer killed was his father.
I've read Najib's writing of his heart-wrenching experience many times in which he also wrote the following:
"The two gunmen, according to the official story, were communist hit men.
"The duo allegedly responsible for father's death were eventually caught but only after they had summarily dispatched another high-ranking police officer Tan Sri Khoo Chong Kong, then the chief police officer of Perak.
"And while the two men were hanged for the murder of Khoo, they were never tried for the killing of the IGP."
To Najib, each year as "the anniversary of father's death draws near, I pause to reflect on questions that simply will not go away".
He wrote also of "father's power show of conviction was always acted out in absolute belief in himself, that he did not carry any baggage, political or money-wise".
From the writing, we learned that the late Abdul Rahman was a man who would call a spade a spade – one who did not mince words even to ministers and VIPs.
We learned also that when the late Abdul Rahman was ambushed by the two men who were waiting for him at Lorong Raja Chulan, the IGP was being driven to Bukit Aman.
The trip to the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters said Najib, was not scheduled. "My father was to attend the Thai-Malaysian General Border Committee meeting at the Federal Hotel in Jalan Bukit Bintang.
"But something urgent had cropped up, enough to cause the re-routing."
What was it? Even Najib doesn't know.
But fact is, the late Abdul Rahman wasn't supposed to pass that route on that fateful day although that was the route he normally took to go to his office.
As pointed out several times by Najib, the ''official account'' blamed the Communist Party of Malaya for the killing. And as the two men were said to be CPM "hit men", the "logical" allegation was that the "hit" order came from Chin Peng. Was the official account right? There are many more questions unanswered.
Najib's heart-breaking article in the NST in 2010 provoked calls for fresh investigations.
DAP's Karpal Singh was reported to have said he had repeatedly raised questions in Parliament in 2004 and did so again in 2010 but to no avail.
As said by Najib, the two men allegedly involved in the killing of his father were also charged for the murder of Perak CPO Khoo in 1975.
Karpal was the defence lawyer for one of the two men – Lim Woon Choong. Both were found guity of killing Khoo and sentenced to death by hanging.
But Lim was also charged with the murder of the late Abdul Rahman. Before he was executed for the murder of the Perak CPO, Lim told Karpal that he had nothing to do with the assassination of the late Abdul Rahman.
"He instructed me to take steps to defer his execution to clear his name for the assassination of the IGP for the simple reason he did not carry it out. He did not want to die without clearing his name," said Karpal as quoted in an NST report in June 2013.
Karpal applied to the Kuala Lumpur High Court to have Lim's case called up before his execution on a certificate of urgency.
According to the veteran lawyer, then High Court judge the late Tan Sri Hashim Harun called up the case immediately and directed the trial to proceed.
"However, deputy public prosecutor, the late T S Sambanthamurthi withdrew the charge after which the judge ordered the acquittal of Lim on that charge (of killing the IGP)," said Karpal.
Lim was hanged in 1980 in Pudu Jail for the assassination of the Perak CPO.
The NST report dated June 13, 2010 was headlined "Case closed but murdered IGP family deserve closure". The report quoted the Malaysian Bar Concil, The Association of Ex-police Personnel and as said earlier, Karpal.
Now ponder this also.
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